A 'Boo'tiful Sunset

Good afternoon! We hope everyone is having a wonderful work day. It's about time for a nap around here. Only a few more hours to go. We have a Halloween card to share with you today:

This card has actually been a few years in the making. Since we started making cards, we always had the idea to make layers that opened up, ie- the gate in the front opening as one layer. (If that makes sense. Maybe the picture below helps my case.)

It's a little easier to see that the gate opens up, revealing the haunted castle. With a few color changes, a princess castle is quickly transformed into a spooky, haunted abode. As for the background, it is our take on a fall sunset. It didn't come out quite as well as we wanted (especially the line down the edge), but it's not too shabby using markers. As the sun sets, the creatures of the night come out to play. There are two bats that were glued to the card. The third is on a thin wire, so he can pop out at you! The image was then attached to the card base and the inside reads "Witching you a Happy Halloween"
We are entering this card into this week's SOUS Challenge- "Gates"
Thanks so much for stopping by!

My Bathroom Redo

Good morning! We hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. We’ve been busy getting caught up on all of the work we didn’t do yesterday, along with some new projects we found and just have to try out!! Hopefully they will go as planned and we can share them in a few weeks. If not, then we’ll just have a bunch of yarn hanging around.

Today’s post was originally going to be a tutorial, but as I was writing it, I thought that it would be hard to follow. It something that’s been hanging around for a few months, but it wasn’t fully completed until last night’s addition of the curtain rings:

 

I would love to say this was totally my idea, but I can’t take any credit for it. Unfortunately. Similar shower curtain DIY’s are all over the internet and Pinterest. They are all remakes of this Anthropologie curtain that sells for $118.00. That’s just an absurd amount of money to spend on bathroom décor, so I decided to make one myself for around $20.00. The most expensive part was actually the rings to hold it up (the old blue ones weren’t working for me). I used 3 sheets in all. The two pink ones are queen-sized sheets that I found for $5.00 a piece, and the third was the original shower curtain I had up (which was also somewhere around $5.00, too). In actuality, I got the pink sheets to make a bedspread, but I thought it was time to spruce up the bathroom. There was a whole lotta fabric, a bit of extra thread, and some fighting words, but it is totally worth it. I won’t lie, I kind of feel like a princess whenever I get into the shower…
And the frame with flowers also helps. It's a happy reminder of our amazing trip a few summers ago. They were taken at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland.

Thanks for letting me share by bathroom stories! Or, just the bathroom. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Cupcake Saturday!

Happy Saturday! We hope everyone has had a wonderful work week. We are definitely looking forward to the weekend, even if it’s filled with a ton of work to do! At least we have a few more days of sun and warmer temperatures before the rainy season is upon us. Anyway, since it is Saturday, we have another cupcake to share. Today’s cupcake is a very fall-inspired one: Pumpkin-stuffed vanilla cupcakes, with a pumpkin spice buttercream.

 

These are a basic vanilla cupcake filled with a little pumpkin-y surprise! These are like our valentine’s day cupcakes a while back, with a heart in the middle. The pumpkin cake is a pumpkin-spice bread mix, cut into the shape of a pumpkin. Or, what is supposed to be a pumpkin. All of our cookie cutters were much too big, so we had to cut them by hand. I guess they don’t look too shabby, for paper and a knife. The basis for the frosting is a basic recipe. However, instead of using cream and vanilla for the liquid, we had some pumpkin-spice liqueur in the fridge, so we used that. We didn’t use so much that it’s over-powering, but just enough to taste it. To top them off, we sprinkled them with a bit of pumpkin-pie spice and cinnamon-and-sugar.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

It's Been Nuts Around Here!

We're back! We've been super busy around here. Between the start of the school year and on-line orders, the time just kind of ran away from us. It's been quite a while since we had a project to share.We didn't realize it's been a week though. So, for today's project, we have a cute little card to share:

It's a little hard to tell, but once again, the pop-dots came out on this card! The squirrel, acorn, and a few of the leaves pop up. And a card isn't complete without some glitter! This little squirrel is another easel card. Here it is, open:

The little guys on Create-a-Critter are just too cute! And with googly eyes, they're even cuter! We are entering this little guy into this week's BBtB2's Shape Up! Challenge.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Whoo's Ready for 4th Grade?

Happy Tuesday! We hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend. For most of us there won't be another one until October! On the bright side, that's only a month away :) But then again, we haven't actually started a new school year yet, so there shouldn't be anything to complain about, huh?! Anyway, as promised, we have another back-to-school classroom project. This is an apple tulle wreath we made this weekend:

 

OK, so it's supposed to be an apple. If we had to do it again, it would probably be made with a circle wreath form. But then again, it goes along with the "teaching is a work of heart" saying. So it works for this. Unfortunately, it had a little accident while we were making it:

The bright side? We realized that the two halves would make cute little candy canes for the upcoming holiday season. And we were able to put our broken heart back together will a little hot glue (which fixes almost everything!)

We decided to make the wreath because the door was in desperate need of some pizzazz. This is a view of the little "nameplate" on the wreath. It's not a great picture of the nameplate, but it's designed to look like a chalkboard (although there aren't many of those left!) Over the years, we've had so many people say our last name incorrect. Because of this, we realized that it's just like an owl's call, and tell the kids, "It's hoo, like an owl". It makes it easier for everyone. It is also the reason why we included the owls on yesterday's project. And, of course, he has little googly eyes, because they make everything better!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

A Crafty Back to School Gift

Welcome to another week! We hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. We've been busy working on a ton of projects, mostly classroom decor. We have a few to share this week, but we'll start with our favorite!

Who wouldn't want to get this little gift for the first day of school?! There are a lot of teacher "survival kits" out there, with a range of things. This one is full of desk supplies that a teacher, and probably her students, would need for a successful year.

This is a picture of the paint can and top. These are a great way to use up all of your ribbon (and have an excuse to get more!!) And you can't give a gift without a card! It's a little hard to tell, but the paper used has a shimmer to it, to add a special touch. Of course we added googly eyes to both the owl and apple because everyone knows they make everything that much cuter!

This is a list of everything that was in the paint can. Our favorite? The last one about wanting a snow day! It's too bad we don't get too many of those.
We are entering our little teacher gift into this week's "Back to School & Classroom Favors" at Decorate to Celebrate.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Come back tomorrow for another (adorable) back to school project!

Cupcake Saturday!

I can't believe it's already the last day of August! Where has this summer gone?! As the summer's last Cupcake Saturday, we have an ice cream treat inspired cupcake. These are root beer float cupcakes.

 

The cake is root beer flavored, with extract put into our regular cake mix instead of vanilla. Some of the flavors you can find now are pretty cool. Definitely makes it easier to change up your flavors.  The frosting is just a vanilla frosting, to be like the vanilla ice cream. These aren't quite as cold as the ice cream treat, but they are still reminiscent of Grandma's. (And the straws are just cute.)

 Thanks for stopping by!